


Photograph

by mc_writer



Series: Nobody Compares [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8047531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mc_writer/pseuds/mc_writer
Summary: Zayn goes on holiday in Hawaii, meets Liam, but doesn’t know how to say goodbye.





	Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Photograph by Ed Sheeran. A lot.

Zayn couldn’t sleep.

Since the night he and Liam kissed, time seemed to have a mind and will of its own. So, just when Zayn wanted it to slow down, time decided to fly. 

Hawaii was supposed to be a summer break. It was supposed to be light.  It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be a distraction.

Zayn hadn’t expected it to be more.

So here he was, lying awake beside Liam. 

_Liam._

The sheets were stark white and the window let in just enough light to illuminate the expanse of Liam’s skin. The corner of Zayn’s mouth lifted in a smile.  _Sun-kissed._  When people described people as sun-kissed, they must have been picturing Liam. Zayn ached to reach a hand out, to smooth it over Liam’s back, to memorize the feel of his skin under his palms, to press skin to skin so he would never forget how Liam felt.

So he would never forget how Liam made him feel.

He knew that if he touched him now, Liam would stir. He would first press into Zayn’s hand and lean into his touch. Then he would turn over and look at him with the deep brown eyes that said everything even though he said nothing.

And Zayn didn’t think he could take that right now.

Not when the days were flying by and he didn’t yet know how he was going to say goodbye.

They were both skirting around the fact that Zayn was leaving. They both knew it. But, knowing didn’t make it necessary to talk about it. The knowledge, even unspoken, added a certain weight to their time together, a gravity so real Zayn felt it like a tug in his gut.

Yesterday, Liam had invited him to surf.

“No students today?”

Liam shrugged. “Louis is taking over for me.” He grinned suddenly, his eyes crinkling happily. “My poor students.”

Zayn chuckled. Louis could be demanding. Even of the beginners. What might have been different, if Liam hadn’t been the one to take him that first time? Zayn pushed that thought out of his mind. It didn’t bear thinking about.

And so there they were, much like that very first day. Liam set their boards down on a quiet part of the beach, away from the crowds, away from prying eyes. It almost felt like they were the only two people on the island and when Liam took Zayn’s hand and drew him in to press his lips first to his temple, and then to his mouth, Zayn believed it. Because nothing mattered more than this: this warm body against his, this hot mouth and slick tongue, the feel of hands on skin, and the sound of Liam’s voice murmuring in his ear.

“Babe.”

Zayn didn’t quite know how he managed to break the kiss off, didn’t know how he managed to compose himself for long enough to look at him. And he had thought that maybe he was ready to talk about it, to talk about leaving. But he looked into Liam’s eyes and the words he had rehearsed in his head were gone.

So, Zayn pressed his lips to Liam’s birthmark–his favorite place to kiss, because it made Liam drop his head back in surrender, because Liam came completely undone when he did it– then turned away to pull him towards the water.

“We came to surf. So let’s surf!”

So they did. 

And when they took a pause, lying on the sand with their eyes closed and fingers entwined, Zayn closed his eyes but didn’t say no when Liam shook the water from his fingers and snapped a selfie of them.

Now, in bed, watching Liam, Zayn does the only thing he can think of to do. Very carefully, so he doesn’t wake Liam, he reaches for his camera. He hasn’t taken very many photographs, because it always reminds him of work. He regrets it now and thinks he should take as many photographs as possible in the little time he has left.

He snaps a photo, with a brief pang of remorse that this photo is of Liam’s back. But he looks at the image in the viewer and decides that this is the perfect image of Liam: warm, soft, relaxed, curved into the space left by Zayn’s body.

This is how he wants to remember Liam.

He’s so lost in the photo, he doesn’t notice Liam has awoken and is taking the camera out of his hands and setting it gently on the bedside table. Liam doesn’t speak, only lowers his body onto Zayn, a weight that Zayn welcomes. He loves how Liam presses him into the mattress, the hitch in Liam’s breath when Zayn lifts his hips up, and how the need to be close, close, closer, builds slowly until both he and Liam are falling apart and coming together.

Afterwards, they lie together, breath slowing down, sweat cooling on skin. Liam reaches for the camera and gazes at Zayn’s shot.

“You could have just asked me if you wanted a picture,” Liam whispers, and the smile in his voice makes Zayn smile too.

Liam reaches for his phone and holds it up. They are more shadows then light, but Liam rolls them over, laughing, until they are cast in the soft glow from the window. This time, Zayn keeps his eyes open, mesmerized by how they look at this moment.

Zayn knows he will remember this. When time finally has its say and leaving is inevitable, he will remember this. 

But for now, there is no time, no goodbye. There is only this, only now, only their bodies pressed against each other in a bed that is much too small for two.


End file.
